AUSTIN — A protest against toll roads highlighted a rally on
the Capitol steps Friday, but the Texas Independence Day holiday put
folks in the mood to raise hell about other grievances as well.

Many also complained about a national animal identification tag. Some
grumbled about the state's loss of control of its borders. A few warned
about the coming "North American Union." And some excoriated
the United Nations for wanting "to take your gun," exhorting
anyone within earshot to "get us out of the U.N."

The "liberty or death" chant of a thousand or more protesters
marching up Congress Avenue to the Capitol conveyed a decidedly serious
intent on an otherwise sunny Friday afternoon.

Famed blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan elevated those feelings midway
through the rally when the spotlight fell on him, and both he and audience
connected with such lyrics as "I got the blues about tyranny"
... "Don't want no shackles on me" and "Down with Big
Brother."

Much of the crowd quickly joined him.

"I want to be free. It's all about liberty," Vaughan said
later. "I was born here. I'm going to die here, and I don't want
to give it away to somebody else."

Many of the protesters fear that state leaders are going to give away
Texas soil to a foreign country via toll roads. The Spanish company
Cintra could build some of the state's toll roads under a 50-year contract.

"We feel that if we don't get heard now, we're going to be paying
it out for the next 50 or 75 years. We're very upset with our own government
supporting these foreign intrusions," said San Antonian Robert
Throckmorton, a retired Air Force pilot.

"We just want all this toll madness to stop," San Antonio
small-business owner Byron Juen said. "We will work diligently
like we have done in the past (to defeat politicians who support such
projects). We have a track record of ousting politicians that don't
heed our warnings."

He singled out former state Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels, who
supported the Trans-Texas Corridor project.

"Let's work together, public and private, to solve our transportation
challenges," he said.

Much of the protesters' wrath was aimed at Gov. Rick Perry, whom they
blame for orchestrating the Trans-Texas Corridor project and associated
toll roads.

"We all know that the buck stops at the office of Governor Thirty-nine
Percent. He refuses to listen," said Hank Gilbert of Troup, referring
to the percentage of votes Perry garnered in November to win re-election.

Gilbert made opposition to the TTC a centerpiece of his unsuccessful
run as the Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner last
year.

The Perry camp shrugged off the criticism.

"In the '40s, some protested against the farm-to-market road system,
in the '50s some protested against the interstate highway system, and
today some protesters will leave the rally against the TTC using those
very same roads," Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "Ain't
progress great!"